This event is a one dang good deal – free. You will need to purchase your beer pours, but the festival will give you a great chance to sample a multitude of great West Sound beers from some brewers that you typically do not get a chance to see. We are particularly excited to finally sample Der Blokken, Valholl, and Grove Street.

Head on out Saturday morning and grab some breakfast in Bainbridge before heading West to Silverdale for the festival. The beer begins pouring bright and early at 11 AM and the weather is billed at 70 and Sunny. No better weather to be outside, drinking local beer and eating bratwurst.

Just as it sounds, Ballast Point Brewery is taking over Rattle-N-Hum through May 5, 2010 with many many beers including: Bourbon Barrel Aged Black Marlin; Dorado; Tongue Buckler; Victory at Sea and Three Sheets Barleywine.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Brooklyn Brewery Tasting: Garland, Texas

Begins at 6:00PM @ Flying Saucer on the Lake
The event will be hosted by Mike Vitale and Nadine Jones from The Brooklyn Brewery and will pair four of Brooklyn’s core brands, seasonal beers and big bottles with three food courses, including prosciutto-wrapped melon, Flying Saucer Surf & Turf and pretzel Samoa. Featured beers include the Summer Ale, Lager, Local 1 and Local 2. Tickets for the event can be purchased at Flying Saucer and are $25 for U.F.O. Club members and $30 for non-members. Reservations are recommended as space is limited.

In an effort to conserve energy and to celebrate Earth Day, Hop Cat will feature beers from featuring beers from Anderson Valley, Brooklyn Brewing Co., and a few others. Enjoy these brews by candlelight.

Dogfish Head beers, due to their quality and undeniable flavors pair very well with a variety of foods. Sam from Dogfish is coming to dinner! Tickets are $75 per person for a 5 beer, 3 food course dinner. Email info@busybeeraleigh.com to reserve a seat.

Today’s post comes to you from guest writer and friend to the Blotter, Dan Frueh. We first met Dan over a pint of Pliny the Younger. This guy knows his beer. We asked him to fill us in on the competition at Washington Cask Festival. Thanks Dan for the great post!

By: Dan Frueh

The Washington Cask Festival brings out the best in Washington beer lovers. Itʼs a room full of people, most of whom are here to dissect, explore, and be challenged by some new concoction that these Northwest breweries have brought to share. More than that however, the beer lovers are there for the intense community that happens only at these festivals, tastings, and club meetings.

Briefly, cask beer is a beer that has been conditioned in a small wooden or metal barrel instead of the huge vats used to brew the normally bottle beers. In essence, cask beer is an experiment. It enables brewers to cook beer using wild ingredients and the 2010 cask festival did not disappoint in that regard. Just as wine takes on the flavor of the container it ages in, so does beer.

Rock Bottom showed up strongly - Hop Bomb certainly is a must try

The primary experimental ingredient at cask festival was oak. Seems harmless. Brew some beer in an oak cask. Easy. Tasty. Brew some beer in a barrel that used to hold some Jack Danielʼs or bourbon. Ok now were experimenting. However those beers were still accessible such as Issaquah Brewingʼs Frosty Frog that had been aged three months in Jack Danielʼs barrels.

Now to step it up to the next level, brewers start using ingredients in the brewing process itself such as orange peel and oak chips, both of which are tasty and understandable. However, brewers often choose to go a little overboard with their ideas but thankfully allow those of us brave enough to go to cask festival to try them.

So everyone comes and is challenged by new beers and to savor old favorites. Cask festival appeared to raise the nerd level a little more than just a craft beer festival might. Long discussions could be overheard about why chinook hops were a better bittering hop, or why this yearʼs version of the trickster IPA didnʼt compare with past years, or the oft-heard complaint that these wasnʼt enough water to cleanse the palate after each beer.

The champion - Black Raven's Wisdom Seeker

Despite these more esoteric conversations, I had a few conversations with strangers about how great Northwest beer is, how tight the craftbeer community is, how everyone looks out for each other because we all have the same enemy in the Bud/Miller/Coors giant. This was the best part of cask festival – sharing a love of beer with people and then moving beyond just that point of connection into making new friends.

Beer is a social lubrication tool and what better way to do that then to actively set up a venue where everyone can come together to share in that. Thanks Washington Beer Lovers.